HICL Infrastructure PLC

Good morning everyone and welcome to Hickle's interim results presentation for the period ended 30th of September 2025. Usual housekeeping applies, we're not expecting a fire alarm so if it does go off please do follow the fire marshal out of the building and into the blizzard outside. We expect the presentation to last about 30 minutes following which we'll take questions from the room and then from those online. I'll now hand over to Ed Hunt and Mark Tyner to take us through the formal presentation.

Thanks, Mo. Good morning and welcome to this set of interim results for Hickel Infrastructure PLC. A busy week for the company, recognising Monday's announcement regarding the proposed combination of Hickel and Trigg. That announcement and the investor presentation is on the website and clearly we're getting around to speak to investors in the market. Notwithstanding that exciting development and that it remains subject to a shareholder vote, the focus today will be on Hickel's results as a standalone, reflecting the performance for the six months to 30 September. So starting on slide four with Hickel's core proposition, this is a reminder of Hickel's differentiated and straightforward purpose, one that has underpinned the company's investment proposition for almost 20 years. Hickel sources and executes high-quality infrastructure investments in private markets, constructs a well-balanced and diversified portfolio, and offers that to investors in a liquid vehicle. Each and every asset is actively managed to realise its inherent value and to perform its specific role in the overall portfolio, utilising infrared's 25-year-plus track record as a specialist infrastructure investor. all up a defensive platform positioned for growth, and this is evident throughout this set of results. Starting on slide five. This is a robust interim result underpinned by a strong operating performance. Hickel remains on the front foot, meeting the key milestones that we set out to the market at the beginning of the financial year. This starts on the left of the slide with the company's approach to portfolio rotation. In August, Hickel announced the sale of seven UK PPP assets for around £225 million, in line with our March 31 valuation. This exceeded the £200 million disposal target for the year, and Hickel has now delivered on over £730 million of divestments over the last 24 months at strong valuations. This divestment activity is supportive to long-term portfolio construction, enables capital recycling for a creative investment, and importantly, provides an engine for growth. And this growth is clear, turning to the middle column. The company's NAV per share increased by 2.9 pence over the period to 156 pence, primarily driven by a strong operational performance from Hickle's growth assets, which saw a combined 7% EBITDA uplift period on period. Hickel's yield assets complemented this outperformance with pleasing cash generation, bringing the underlying portfolio return to 10.3% on an annualised basis. As you can see on the right of the slide, this strong operational performance puts Hickel on track to meet its cash generation targets. Cash cover for the six months reached that important 1.1 times threshold, an uplift from the 1.07 times at the full year. Hickle remains on track to deliver its 1.1 times for the full year, excluding profits on disposal. This growing cover ratio speaks to the quality of the underlying cash generation, notwithstanding the significant reinvestment of cash at asset level into growth capex. If we were to gross up the dividend cash cover for that capex, the dividend cover would increase to in excess of 1.5 times, or a payout ratio of around 65%, ensuring significant compounding of free cash. This cash generation also supports Hickel's progressive dividend with the board reaffirming the existing guidance of 8.35 pence to March 26 and the 8.5 pence for the year March 27 on a standalone basis. Together with the three columns on this page showcase Hickel's compelling total return proposition. Organic growth at asset level fueled by disciplined capex, at portfolio level through a creative asset rotation, and that strong and growing income that we associate with high-quality infrastructure, a defensive platform positioned for growth. Further metrics for the six-month period are set out on slide six. At the top left, we highlight the NAV growth of 1.9% over the period to 156.0 pence, contributing to a strong 9.5% annualized NAV return for the period set out in the top right. That's a result of a strong performance from Hickel's growth assets with EBITDA growth of 7% period on period, bottom left. And bottom right then looks at the discount rate or the expected returns from the portfolio. So 8.4% is the weighted average discount rate and the expected gross return if you buy the portfolio at NAV. That translates to 10% net return if you buy at Friday share price. As active managers, we seek to deliver over and above those expected returns as we have done in this period. On slide seven, the now very familiar Yielders and Growers slide, a useful tool to articulate strategic portfolio construction. The Yielders in the light purple, Hickle's PPP investments with an average life of 13 years, yielding strongly at around 11% cash yield. balanced with Hickles growers, longer life assets, extending cash flows beyond the maturing yielders, compounding free cash back into growth capex, and providing that long-term earnings base that underpins long-term dividend and NAV growth. The design here is straightforward. The yielders will continue to mature and eventually be handed back. The growers will continue their growth capex and then start their yielding phase. And as active managers, our job is to continue to stoke and balance both sides of this equation to solve for a compelling total return for shareholders. Note that this chart assumes all cash is paid out. The reality is that dividend cash cover, that element above one times cover, will be reinvested, providing a valuable source of funding for organic growth. Passing over now to Mark for the financial result.

Thank you, Ed, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to present to you today the review of Hickel's financial performance for the first six months of the year. Taking slide nine, we touched on Hickel's strong disposal track record at the beginning. So before we review the NAVBridge for the period, I would like to take a closer look at August's portfolio sale to APG, the manager of Europe's largest pension fund. Beyond meeting the FY26 disposal target well ahead of the end of the financial year, a transaction has several strategic benefits for the company. From a portfolio construction perspective, this sale continues our portfolio rotation efforts and improves key portfolio construction metrics, including reducing Hickle's exposure to short-duration assets and lifecycle risk, while continuing to right-size exposure to healthcare assets. On valuation, the disposals are in line with our 31 March 2025 valuation, providing an important transactional data point along with net proceeds that support the growth of the company. The sale also establishes a new partnership framework with APG, which creates opportunities for future divestments and potential co-investments as attractive opportunities arise. And finally, to reiterate that disposal proceeds now total in excess of £730 million over the past 24 months, the highest in the sector at an average premium to NAV of 7%. We expect this transaction to close in the next few weeks. On slide 10, we show the NAV per share bridge for the period to 30 September 2025. Starting with opening NAV per share of 153.1p, the portfolio generated 7.2p of value accretion in the year. 6.2p of this arose from the unwind of the weighted average discount rate, which was unchanged in the six months at 8.4%. While government bond yields rose slightly in the period, the transactional evidence we saw, including our own disposal of assets at March NAV, did not point to an increase in discount rates from the March level, and as a result, we have maintained a weighted average discount rate at 8.4%. We are pleased by an extra penny of NAV accretion coming from outperformance of the portfolio. This was driven by higher than expected inflation in our countries of operation, particularly the UK, and the effect in the period of the investment managers' value enhancement initiatives, particularly at the growth assets. Changes in forecast economic assumptions used in the portfolio valuation models contributed a further 0.1p. And the company's share buyback programme, which was renewed in March, targeting a further £100 million of buybacks over the course of the year, contributed an accretion in the period of 0.9p or 1.8p since the beginning of the programme in May 2024. A total of 116 million shares have been bought back at an average price of 118.8p. Fund expenses of 1.5p per share include the management fee, which was calculated on the new reduced basis for three months of the period. A small foreign exchange gain of 0.4p after hedging and the 4.2p of dividends paid in the year, reflecting the full year target of 8.35p, completes the bridge to our 30 September NAV per share of 156p. Turning to the right side of the slide, the operating expense ratio was 1.04% by annualising the six-month costs. On a pro forma basis, assuming that management fee reduction is in place for the whole year, the OCR is 1.0%, a 10 bps decrease from the prior year. Net debt at the end of the period was 142.2 million, a £40 million increase over the six months, arising from liquidity deployed into the buyback programme over the period. Hickel's net debt principally comprises £30 million of drawn RCF and £150 million of private placement notes, offset by £38 million of cash, and led to a fund gearing percentage of 8, marginally up over the period from 7.4%. And finally, available liquidity available to the company at the end of the period, including undrawn RCF amounts, was £402 million. Turning to slide 11, here we take a look at the portfolio level debt profile and key portfolio valuation sensitivities. On the left, you can see from the doughnut that 84% of the debt is concession project finance, amortising debt with no refinancing requirement. Only 16% of portfolio-level debt has any refinancing requirement, and of that amount, only 1% falls due in the next two years. Hickel's portfolio gearing is 65% overall on a non-recourse basis, and the average gearing of those assets that do have refinancing risk is lower, as you would expect, at 50%. On the right, we present key portfolio sensitivities. While the weighted average discount rate has not changed in the period, if it were to increase by half a percent, for example, there would be a 7.3p negative effect on NAV per share. Due to the nature of the long-term contracts in our portfolio, higher inflation has a positive correlation to NAV, reflecting the portfolio's 0.7 times inflation correlation. We also note the slight positive overall correlation of the NAV to interest rates. This reflects the large interest earning cash balances in the PPP portfolio especially, and the fact that practically all interest payable on the portfolio debt is fixed in nature. Turning to slide 12, here we refresh the cash generation analysis presented at full year. The cash flows after the six-month period show the relative contribution of the yields and growers, each now 50% of the portfolio, to cash generation. In the period, the yielders contributed £86 million after debt, amortisation and lifecycle costs, and the growers generated EBITDA of £131 million in the period, a strong 7% increase on the prior comparable period. And after payment of interest, tax and capex, contributed £28 million to dividend cover. At fund level in the central box, total distributions of £114 million cover finance costs of £6 million and operating costs of £19 million, resulting in £89 million to cover the two quarters dividends 1.1 times. Dividend is also covered 1.42 times by earnings, demonstrating the ability of the NAV to grow over time. Turning to slide 13, we would expect this sustainable NAV growth to be supported by a dividend cash cover target of 1.1 times or more in future years. We are keen to maintain a balance between a progressive dividend, well covered, and the ability to redeploy surplus cash into the portfolio to generate future returns through growth capex, reinvestment or bolt-on acquisitions where appropriate. This is why we are targeting a minimum of 1.1 times dividend cover. to give shareholders comfort that the dividend is suitably covered and within the portfolio to make the most efficient use of remaining capital. Finally, on a standalone basis, we reaffirm the dividend guidance of 8.5p for FY27. We turn to slide 15. Before moving into portfolio performance, it's worth revisiting here the company's market positioning, which you can see here on page 15. Hickel is a core infrastructure investor. All of our assets are positioned towards the lower end of the infrastructure risk spectrum and benefit from three key characteristics. High cash flow quality through contracts, entrenched demand or regulated revenues. Defensive market positioning where there are high barriers to entry and low competition. And criticality, essential assets that form the foundation of modern society. This framework guides our approach to new acquisitions and also describes the existing portfolio, which is summarised on the next page. So you'll be familiar with the charts on this slide, which really underscore the diversification of Hickel's portfolio across sectors, geographies and revenue types. Our active approach to portfolio construction remains central to the company's business model, with the agreed sale of seven UK PPP assets in the period expected to further enhance key metrics and diversify risk. For example, the company's exposure to health assets reduces from 22% to 16%. with PMP and Southmead hospitals now falling outside the top 10. And the top 10's percentage increases due to the sale, partly because of the denominator effect, but also through outperformance. For example, Affinity steps up to 12%. The following pages provide the usual performance updates for Hickle's largest holdings. So I'll hand you back to Ed, who will take you through these.